Appears in

English voice actor

Japanese voice actor

Yasunori Masutani

"Do not delude yourself, thou wretched fool!"

— Raphael

Raphael Sorel (ラファエル・ソレル, Rafaeru Soreru) is a fictional character in Namco's Soul series of fighting games. First appearing in Soulcalibur II, he can be viewed as a protagonist, but as the series progressed he became an antagonist. He has returned as a starting character for Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV,Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Soulcalibur V and as an unlockable in Soulcalibur: Lost Swords. Raphael is well known for his fencing style of swordsmanship and his mocking, contemptuous persona. In Soulcalibur III he is nicknamed "Dark Lord". In Soulcalibur IV is called "Lord Of The Night" and "Creature Of The Night" by other characters.

What lies in his soul is Domination. In Soulcalibur V's promotional material, he's referred to as Wandering For His Lost Love.

Contents

Appearance

Raphael appears as a fairly young man of French noble descent, having blue eyes and shoulder length blonde hair. In his first appearance, he wore an indigo jacket with black lining and red inner workings, matching gloves and black pants with red highlights. Tied around his waist is a long red sash. In Soulcalibur III, the influence of Soul Edge had changed his body to resemble something of a vampire, featuring paler skin and red coloured eyes, part of his hair swept up with another styled in a fringe that covers half his face, and a slightly more muscular build. He then wore a green jacket with a collared cape, both which feature red inner workings and gold lining with an armor plate beneath. In Soulcalibur IV, he wore a mostly black ensemble featuring a two-tailed high-collared coat with gold lining and an elaborate white frill decorating with a bat emblem on it, making him resemble Castlevania's Alucard. His eyes remained red.

As of Soulcalibur V, it appears he has not aged at all. The outfit he is wearing has a very similar silhouette to his Soulcalibur II costume with the addition of a black widebrimmed hat. He also wears his bat ornaments upside down. The reason for this is still unknown and might never be explained, but it can be surmised the widebrimmed hat is in reference to the Vampire Hunter D artwork done by Yoshitaka Amano. Like D, Raphael is vampiric in nature and, as of Soulcalibur V, can be assumed to be a tormented figure.

Abilities

Raphael is a master at fencing with his Rapier. After being corrupted and turned into a malfested, he became a vampire and as such gained numerous vampiric powers, such as drinking people's blood, and turning others into vampires that serve him. He can also somehow drain energy by touching someone on their abdomen.

Biography

Soulcalibur II

Raphael, the young master of the Sorel family, grew up with the rapier and medicine as his playmates. His cool, unemotional demeanor created many enemies, but his quick and precise decision-making and execution skills solidified the foundation of his family amongst the nobles. Unfortunately, Raphael was cast out one day when he made a critical mistake; during the Evil Seed incident, he had killed a noble in self-defense: a noble that had long supported their family. Outraged by this, his own family cast him out, and even aided the town in the pursuit of Raphael.

Raphael hid himself in an impoverished town to escape from his pursuers. There he met a little girl named Amy, who hid the weakened Raphael from his enemies. For the little girl, helping Raphael was only a simple deed motivated out of spite for the soldiers. For Raphael, however, it marked the first time he owed his life to someone else. He felt emotions that he had never experienced before, and Amy became an irreplaceable presence in Raphael's life.

Convinced that the chaos of the war was no place to live a meaningful life, Raphael took Amy and left the poverty-stricken town. But even with the new surroundings, he could not get Amy to open her heart to the world.

One day, in the library of the mansion he acquired under dark pretenses, Raphael found a letter with references to the Evil Seed. It wasn't long before he made the connection between Evil Seed and Soul Edge.

What if such a sword were thrust into the hands of the pathetic nobles? It would all be worth it if the petty, war-mongering nobles could be eliminated to secure a meaningful future for Amy. But in order to accomplish his goal, Raphael needed Soul Edge; he was determined to obtain the sword by any means necessary.

In his quest for Soul Edge, Raphael faced off against Nightmare in the land of Ostrheinsburg.

Nightmare won.

His body weakened, his breath haggard, and his consciousness fading, he looked up to see the giant, ghastly sword wielded by the embodiment of a nightmare. He muttered Amy's name; for an instant, an emotion that was neither anger nor pride flared up inside him, and he overcame his pain and forced his body to move. The desperate strike he unleashed hit its mark, piercing the center of Soul Edge. That was all he remembered. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the sight of his opponent writhing in pain.

Soulcalibur III

He should have been dead. Yet, for some reason, the Azure Knight had left without delivering the final blow. Raphael dragged his grievously wounded body back to his mansion. He spent several days on the brink of death, but he eventually recovered. At this time, however, he did not notice the evil energy radiating from the wounds he had received from Soul Edge—energy that was now eating into his body. The phenomenon of malfestation—he had come across this terminology during his research into the cursed sword. By the time that word flashed through his mind, it was already too late. The symptoms even spread to Amy, who had nursed him back to health. Likely she had been infected when she came into contact with his blood...

Raphael escaped with Amy to Wallachia, a distant land in Romania, where they took shelter in a castle ruin that stood in the mountains.

Amy had been transformed into a being that could not interact with the normal world. Raphael decided that he would change the world for her. His plan, woven from threads of madness, proceeded slowly but surely, infecting nearby lands with evil energy.

But one day, an incident occurred in which some people who had been transformed to evil returned to normal by the power of a Holy Stone. Threatened by this object, Raphael decided to go on a journey to discover the true nature of the "Holy Stone" and obliterate it from this world.

Just as he made his decision, an army appeared at the base of the castle. They had noticed the abnormality of the area and come to attack its source.

Raphael bid farewell to his beloved Amy and descended below to the world that refused to accept them.

Soulcalibur IV

To Raphael, Amy was everything. He even schemed to turn the whole world evil—to "malfest" it—for the sole purpose of creating a world Amy could call home. But the Holy Stone caused his plans to unravel by bringing some of the townspeople he had transformed back to their senses.

That meant a power even greater than the evil sword must exist. He needed another way to accomplish his goals, and so he vanished into the darkness to find it. After extracting some useful information from the creatures of the dark, he arrived at an answer: he must find a tribe that called themselves the "guardians of the spirit sword." Though themselves lost in the darkness of history, they had continued to pass down their lore: the story of Soul Calibur, the one weapon that could stand against the cursed sword Soul Edge.

This was the answer he had been seeking! Raphael looked heavenward, up at the night sky. Countless lights darted across his vision, and he followed them until they vanished over Orstrheinsburg, where he had once confronted Soul Edge. The series of lights were proof that the cursed sword was reviving. If Soul Calibur was once again fated to stop it, then it would inevitably appear there, at the castle.

Raphael now waits for Soul Calibur to appear so he can obtain her for himself and create the ideal world for himself and his beloved daughter.

Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny

(Non-Canon)

In the Gauntlet mode, he kidnaps Hilde to make her Amy's pet in Chapter 8-1. But the player (depending on who you're playing as), Dampierre and Cassandra capture him in Chapter 8-3. They reach his castle on Chapter 9-1, where Jacqueline and a doll of Amy(?) are waiting for his arrival, and his punishment. While the player fights the doll, he and Dampierre are getting along quite well.

Soulcalibur V

How long had he been dreaming? How long had he climbed that endless spiral staircase? Somehow, he knew her room was at the top...

France had been devastated by war, and Raphael, head of the once-proud Sorel legacy, was devastated by a betrayal that cost him everything. But then he met someone, someone who took him in and sheltered him in his hour of need, and suddenly none of it mattered. Her name was--

"Amy!"

He awoke with a start to find himself in a dark dungeon cell, thick with grime and the stench of death. He had no memory of how he had gotten there, but that wasn't important—he had to find Amy.

When Raphael burst out of the prison, everything outside looked different than he remembered...but no matter. This world was but a fleeting dream, destined to be transformed into a new and better place—a world twisted to the needs of he and his beloved.

"Don't worry, Amy... I'll be with you soon."

A force of madness was loose upon the world, a man who would stop at nothing to find his beloved.

The Artbook confirms that Raphael died after the events of Soul Calibur IV and that his body was used to make the reincarnation of the Azure Knight Nightmare, but Soul Edge had to rewrite some of Raphael's memories due to his strong willpower. Nightmare as Graf Dumas had some of Raphael's personality and his cunning strategies, which causes Nightmare to try to take over the world rather than destroy everything on sight. To this end he uses an army of Malfested and exploits politics to his advantages. It's unknown how Raphael appears in the story but it implied that after he was freed from Soul Edge's influence he regained his body and discarded the Azure Knight armor to look for Amy.

Fighting Style

Raphael is a fencer who wields an English sword rapier. His fighting style predominantly accommodates thrusting and slashing attacks, which he specializes in. Raphael is a relatively fast character in terms of attack speed, and as an added bonus many of his thrusting attacks have an added Guard Impact effect, or allow him to dodge attacks entirely via sidestepping and ducking under his opponent's weapon.

Although these thrust attacks are Raphael's main strength, they are very linear and can be sidestepped with relative ease. Raphael's range of horizontal strikes are much less diverse, and the same could also be said for his kick attacks. However, they are thankfully fast, and are therefore able to catch someone at the start of a preemptive evade. Despite their relative quickness, they do not provide the dodging features of his thrust attacks, which leave him open to counterattacks.

Raphael has a reasonable number of low attacks in his arsenal, most of which deal moderate damage and are hard to guard on reaction. Raphael's throw attacks have a noted long range, and are hard to avoid. Superficially, Raphael gives the impression of a very neat and technically correct swordsman in combat.

If played in the manner of a defensive player, using Guard Impact moves and dodge attacks rather than utilizing his speed, he is able to last for an extremely long time against opponents. This makes him one of the fighters, in SCIV, able to run out the clock by "blocking" attacks after the Soul Gauge runs low, which can prove nerve-racking, if not outright annoying, to other players.

Mastering Raphael's evasive maneuvers makes him a good "mind game" character, bested only by fighters actually meant for the job, like Cervantes, Yoshimitsu, and Voldo.

Endings

Soulcalibur II

Soul Calibur 2 - Raphael Ending HQ

Soul Calibur II Raphael's Ending

After defeating Nightmare and Inferno, Raphael came to understand the true nature of the blade that so many sought after. He vowed not to allow the weapon to possess him, as it had its predecessor, and grasped the hilt. Then he began to make his way back home to Amy. The last line of the epilogue text reads, "No one knows what was spared and what was destroyed during that time".

Soulcalibur III

An infected Raphael is seen stumbling through the forest with Soul Edge in his hand. He then falls to the floor.

Soul Calibur 3 - Raphael - Ending B

Soul Calibur III Raphael's Ending B

Input Ending Raphael gets back up on his feet and continues on through the forest. The screen fades, and then shows a still sick Amy sitting on a table with books scattered on the floor. "Amy, I'm back." Raphael says as he enters the room. As he comforts Amy, he says "Now... let us go... to our very own world." Raphael and Amy walk out of the room.

Soul Calibur 3 - Raphael - Ending A

Soul Calibur III Raphael's Ending A

No Input Ending The screen fades to black, and then shows Kilik healing an ill Amy. As Kilik leaves the room, Amy looks out the window, waiting for Raphael's arrival. The screen fades to black once more, and then shows Raphael continuing through the forest saying "Amy, we're very close... Very soon, we shall have our own world."

Soulcalibur IV

Soul Calibur IV Raphael's Ending(JP)

Soul Calibur IV Raphael's Ending

Having obtained Soul Calibur, Raphael returns to Osthreinsburg with Marienbard and Auguste to create his new world for him and Amy. He says to the sword, "Now, Soul Calibur, create a new world for Amy and me!" After nothing happens, Raphael asks Marienbard, "Is Soul Calibur really the sword they claim it to be?" "Yes," she replies. He then realizes his mistake and kills the two servants at his sides using Soul Calibur. Raphael then says to himself, "As of right now, this world truly belongs only to Amy and me." He then asks his two dead servants, "So, why should the two of you even have been here? The mistake had been corrected!" Raphael then laughs triumphantly.

Pale Moon Dust: He knocks his opponents back with a hit, stabs his sword into the ground, and attacks the opponent by biting their neck, reinforcing the idea that Soul Edge has turned him into a vampire. However, what he says varies depending on who he uses it on. Using it on someone other than Amy, he says (before he bites them), "On your knees! I shall make you one of my minions!" He then bites them on the neck, crouching over them while they scream. After vampirizing his opponent, he gets up, wipes his mouth, and says, "Perhaps I shall make you Amy's pet!" If he does this on Amy, he will say, "It's over!", and when he's through, he says, "Mmmm...sweet nectar."

Raphael also has a throw he can use in battle that is almost exactly like his critical finish, save for the speech elements. This move also changes depending on whether the opponent is male or female. If the former, Raphael doesn't bite their necks but places his hand on their abdomen area and drains a moderate amount of health from them. If it's the latter however, Raphael will bite them on the neck instead, shouting "Nice Try!" when he's through.

Royal Vexation: Raphael begins his Critical Edge by saying "Now you'll see..." and performs an uppercut with his rapier. While the enemy is in mid-air, he shouts "...The extent of my power!", stabs them quickly three times and delivers a fourth finishing stab while rose petals fly about.

Tower Of Lost Souls Details & Skills

Raphael appears in the few floors of Tower of Lost Souls under the floors such as "Unbinding Wave" & "Solitary Princess" but a Skeleton fighter who uses Raphael's fighting style appears as a boss under the floor "Irritation To Ruin"

Yourtale insult me further'! — Spoken when losing to Viola by time up.

An outrage! — Spoken when losing to Voldo.

Oh...My head — Spoken when losing by time up to Natsu, Ivy, Voldo, Elysium or Algol.

You vex me. Who are you, woman? — Spoken when engaging Viola in battle.

Stop looking into my soul. Damn you! — Spoken after defeating Viola.

Now you will see the extent of my power! — Spoken during his "Critical Edge".

Have you no shame!? — Spoken when ringed out.

Do you know nothing else?! — Spoken when ringed out.

Trivia

General

Ever since Soulcalibur III, fans have assumed that Raphael has become a vampire. This supposed nature is made clear in his Critical Finish animation. He also bites characters' necks as a grapple move. On the second stage of the Yoshimitsu's Story Mode in Soulcalibur IV, the player faces Raphael and his servants, Yoshimitsu inquires at the beginning of the battle "What art thou? A spectre?". Also, during Siegfried's Destined battle against him in Soulcalibur III, he says "You are no longer human, are you?". This line is repeated by Kilik in Raphael's Story mode in Soulcalibur IV. Raphael returns in Soulcalibur V but he seems not to have aged. This could reinforce the fans' speculation about his vampiric nature, although it was confirmed that he died. However, many legends retain the concept that a human must first die before being risen as a vampire.

Despite the above characteristics, the word 'vampire' has never been used to describe Raphael within the series itself.

Raphael's eye color changes quite a bit throughout his appearances. He had blue eyes in Soulcalibur II, amber in Soulcalibur III, and red in Soulcalibur IV and Soulcalibur V. This fact makes him and Amy the only two characters in the series who have changed eye color throughout the installments.

Many of Raphael's weapons are designed almost exclusively for stabbing, including his signature rapier. In spite of this, the majority of his attacks are slashes. Furthermore, his fighting stance is exactly that of a sabreur.

Even though many of his swords have names of actual historical weapons, almost none of these resemble their historical counterparts.

Raphael has the most destined battles of any character in the series.

In Soulcalibur II, Raphael has a Destined Battle for Nightmare and for the three guest characters: Heihachi, Link, and Spawn. He shares his own Destined Battle with Nightmare.

In Soulcalibur III, Raphael is the Destined Battle for five characters: Cassandra, Talim, Kilik, Siegfried and Nightmare. He shares his own Destined Battle with Talim.

In Soulcalibur II and Soulcalibur III, he searches for Soul Edge in his quest to create a world for Amy. However, in Soulcalibur IV, he is instead searching for Soul Calibur; this is likely because of the Holy Stone's impact on his plans, and his subsequent research on the spirit sword.

His alternate costume for Soulcalibur III was also used as his Soulcalibur IV alternate costume but his skin is not pale.

During one of his throws in Soulcalibur IV and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, he will bite female fighters on the neck. If his opponent is male, he will instead clench their stomach with his hand and say "Agh! Disgusting!".

In regards to his fencing style, it should be noted that Raphael is a left-handed swordsman. During the timeframe of the games (Which plays with notion of Raphael's Vampiric nature without directly stating so), a left-handed swordsman was deemed an abomination.

Despite his cold and cruel personality, he seems to love and adore Amy with all his heart.

Raphael should be written Raphaël. Without the dieresis, it would be pronounced Rafél.

In Soulcalibur IV and Soulcalibur V, during the Strigoii Envelopment move, if the player presses a direction (only left or right), Raphael is able to teleport nearer to or behind his opponent, leaving them open to a hit for a few seconds.

Raphael is the only character introduced in Soulcalibur II that was playable in Soulcalibur V.

The famous left handed painter Raphael has a painting for his lover called 'bakers daughter’ strangely bakers daughter is one of Cassandra joke weapons,however it is unknown if project soul is aware of this.

Raphael can be customized over Lee Chaolan in Tekken 6.

Soulcalibur II

Raphael was infamous for his Triple Botta in Tempo combo (Forward + B, B, B). This combo is infamous for its ability to trap and potentially kill any unsuspecting players.

Despite being the main cause of the incident at the end of the game, Raphael does not seem to realize (nor seem to care) that the Azure Knight now exists as two separate individuals: Siegfried and Nightmare.

Some view Raphael as the protagonist since he's the one who freed Siegfried from the control of Soul Edge.

Soulcalibur III

The Soul of Raphael discipline is available to created characters of the Knight class.

The description for Raphael's stage mentions Vlad The Impaler. Vlad's Romanian surname can be spelled as "Dracula", although several alternative spellings exist. This may coincide with Raphael's "vampire-esque" characteristics.

Siegfried's Destined Battle with Raphael is malfunctioned - Raphael has no lines if he wins, despite the subtitles clearly saying "You're too weak to stop me!". Furthermore, in Nightmare's Destined Battle, Raphael does not have a "set" line if he wins, and it will just be a random victory line.

The guest character Lloyd Irving, from Tales of Symphonia, uses a dual Queen's Guard as his ultimate weapon. It is the same as Raphael's from Soulcalibur II, who uses just one.

Soulcalibur IV

It appears as though all of Raphael's followers have been "turned" because they all have yellow eyes.

In Raphael's ending, he has two servants that he kills to make the world only for Amy and himself. The servants are Marienbard and Auguste, but in Amy's ending the followers are Marienbard and Jacqueline.

As of this game, Raphael has two moves which should catch the eye of any Vampire fan. The first, Vurkolak Envelopment, is no doubt a play off the Slavic Vampire known as a Voukodlaks whose spirit is tainted and corrupts the body. Afterwards, the Vampire will seek young girls out until he finds his perfect mate. The second, Strigoii Envelopment, is no doubt named after the Romanian Vampire.

Soulcalibur V

As seen in his artwork, Raphael is holding a skull ornament that was attached to Amy's pigtails in Soulcalibur IV, which suggests he is most likely looking for her in this installment. What happened to her is still unknown, which could strengthen the speculations about Viola's true identity.

When Raphael was revealed, it was mentioned that he had died during the events of Soulcalibur IV. How he is still around, and what this means, is currently unknown.

Raphael's second outfit bears a strong resemblance to Sephiroth's from Final Fantasy VII, except it is mostly colored red instead of black.

During his attack "Mermet de Vec", Raphael seems to be able to sense other characters' link to Soul Calibur: he dislikes the "taste" of characters related to the holy sword or purification in general (like Edge Master).

Some fans started to speculate that Raphael is Graf Dumas.

Certain helmets you place on Nightmare removes the face mask and reveals portions of the face which reveals that he has Raphael's face model. Additionally, Raphael and Nightmare are listed as being the same height, and share the same voice actors. Fans speculate that Raphael's body is Nightmare's new host. Adding to this fact is that there is a reason behind the bat patterns in Nightmare's armor. However, Raphael, does not appear in Story Mode, so it is still uncertain.

Raphael's 2P costume's skin color is paler than his 1P costume.

Etymology

Raphael's name is of Hebrew origin, meaning "God has healed". His concept may have been inspired by Raphael, the famous left-handed painter who has the same name.